America is an empire, that has its armaments and its military personnel engaged and ready for action, literally all over the world. Not too surprisingly, because the world is a vast place, and because apparently, the world is also a very dangerous place, it takes not only a lot of logistics and armaments to maintain or to augment this empire, but it also takes a lot of personnel, as well. At present, those that make up the military force of the United States, are volunteers. Yet, we read at usafacts.org, that for the fiscal year 2023 “three branches reported falling short of their recruitment goals: the Navy was at 80% of its target number, the Army was at 77%, and the Air Force was at 89%” Further to the point, the personnel that makes up our armed forces do not fairly reflect the demographics of this nation, along with the salient fact that since America seems hellbent on adding even more wars to its forever wars, that it is high time to bring back the draft and make it to apply equally to all.
The way that the draft should be structured in a day and age in which so many called for equality and non-discrimination to be the prevailing law of the land, with little or no exceptions to this rule, is for a universal draft to be initiated, which would not be discriminatory, whatsoever. In other words, both men and women would be eligible to be drafted, and previous exceptions made for those who were in poor health, or have bad eyesight, or are married, or are college bound, and all the other excuses previously made, would simply be eliminated. That is to say, the proposed universal draft would apply to all that fell within the range of 18-25 years of age, with the expressed understanding that since for every soldier in the field, there is a multitude of military personnel that support such, this thus represents why previous excuses, in regards to why somebody could not serve, would no longer be relevant.
Perhaps if there was a universal draft, nothing would actually change when it came to the typical bellicosity of America, and thereby with plenty of personnel to draw upon, the United States would thereby involve itself in even more foreign excursions, or do more to protect its sovereignty from invaders, thus making this nation more safe and more secure. Then again, there is more than a fair chance, that a universal draft, which would not permit those with money or other status symbols to evade such a draft, might actually awaken the general lethargy of the people, to better comprehend that wars involve men and women risking their lives and their limbs in a fight, which may or may not even be necessary, or prudent, or a true requirement to protect this nation. Indeed, one of the reasons why America fights so many battles, either through proxy or through its own personnel, is the salient fact that those that are not directly affected by it or are indirectly affected by it, at most, don’t seemingly care all that much about it, which is why we need those that support such forever wars, to step up, and see what war is really all about.